Shyukrie Habil

Director · Solicitor LLB · Personal Injury

Ms Shyukrie Habil specialises in personal injury claims involving life-changing injuries or permanent disability. She has acted in claims and dependency claims arising from fatal accidents, as well as claims involving paralysis, spinal cord injuries, permanent brain damage, traumatic head injuries, serious fractures, amputations, loss of vision, loss of hearing, loss of a testicle, facial injuries, burns, cuts and many other injuries. She has attended a number of Coroner's inquest hearings on behalf of families following fatal accidents.

Shyukrie is an expert in work accidents — falls from height at warehouses, factories, farms and construction sites; falls from ladders, scaffolding, mobile towers, lofts or roofs at building sites; tripping accidents in public spaces such as shops, cinemas and train stations; serious cuts caused by machinery (chop saws, grinders); and other injuries caused by working materials. She has a wealth of litigation experience with complex work accidents and has secured early interim payments for clients so that they could put the right rehabilitation in place. She has pursued and succeeded on claims that other firms had refused to take on. Over the years, her clients have been involved in road traffic collisions involving vans, cars, lorries, motorcycles, cycles, electric scooters, cranes, forklift trucks, buses, aeroplanes and trains. Each individual has had to face their own challenges in order to lead a fulfilling life, and each client has had their own story; Shyukrie has helped them with the right support so that they too could overcome adversity and continue to lead full and active lives.

Shyukrie is committed to the victims of accidents, bravely taking on cases that other firms have turned down. Many of her clients are people who have been personally recommended to her by past clients, and she often meets them in very tragic circumstances.

Shyukrie has acted for multiple claimants involved in complex work accidents and in claims involving multiple defendants. She has attended trials in the County Court and the High Court in which liability was vigorously denied by the opposing parties. Shyukrie is a graduate of the University of Westminster, London. She joined a well-known law firm in North London in 2005, qualifying in 2010. She left the firm together with six other solicitors to form Miya Solicitors, becoming a Director in 2015.

Shyukrie speaks Bulgarian, Turkish and Russian, and has provided pro bono advice to her community since 2005.

She enjoys cycling, tennis and spending time with her family.

Examples of claims in which Shyukrie has succeeded and secured six- and seven-figure settlements for clients:

1. A man, aged just 27, was involved in a work accident that left him with a spinal cord injury, rendering him tetraplegic. He underwent spinal surgery and later received intensive physiotherapy and occupational therapy funded through his personal injury claim. During the claim, he received interim payments that enabled him to purchase a property and adapt it to meet his long-term accommodation needs. The claim eventually settled for a seven-figure sum, providing him with long-term financial security.

2. A man, aged 35, was left tetraplegic following a work accident. A settlement of several million pounds was achieved for him.

3. Our client was a young passenger in a vehicle driven by her husband on a motorway, while travelling from one farm to another. For reasons unknown, the driver stopped in the fast lane, leaving our client in the vehicle. A number of vehicles passed the stationary vehicle without colliding with it. Of the approximately 80 vehicles captured on video footage, one failed to see the stationary vehicle, did not look at the road ahead, did not slow down and took no evasive action, colliding with it and causing our client to sustain brain damage. Her husband later abandoned her and their only child. We secured permanent accommodation from the Council for her and her family, who travelled from Bulgaria to care for her. Her elderly parents learnt English and adapted to life in the UK so that they could care for her. The sum recovered for her ran to millions.

4. A farm worker's hands and arms were pulled into unguarded potato-processing machinery, causing multiple fractures to both hands, wrists, elbows and arms. She later married and had children. A substantial sum in damages was recovered for her.

5. A violinist — a pedestrian struck by a motorcyclist while visiting the UK — recovered a six-figure sum in damages for ankle injuries. He later returned to another European country and continued to play the violin in a famous orchestra.

6. A young and aspiring construction worker and motorcyclist was hit by a pregnant driver on her way to a concert. The collision caused the death of the young motorcyclist, and we acted for his parents to secure damages in a dependency claim.

7. A number of forklift truck claims were settled successfully, including for six-figure sums. One client was a pedestrian in a warehouse yard who was chased by the driver of a forklift truck. Another was a warehouse operative who was run over by a reversing forklift truck, with no walkie-talkie or banksman available to guide the driver. A third claim involved a worker who climbed onto the forks of a forklift truck to repair a leak in a warehouse ceiling; he fell badly, sustaining severe knee injuries. In another case, a client was helping two forklift drivers to move very heavy machinery between workshops; the item proved too heavy and toppled partially onto the claimant, causing his death. He left behind two young children and a young wife. That claim settled for over a million pounds in damages.

8. Burns to the legs and feet: in one claim, from a spillage of hot cooked rice; in another, from hot sugary water; and in another, hot water spilt onto the legs of a young woman. A further claim involved a client who stepped into hot cooking oil in a chip fryer tray while cleaning an overhead cooking hood at the end of his shift, around midnight.

9. Fractures, dislocation and torn meniscus and ligaments to the knees — a twin brother; his twin sister felt his pain and lived with similar suffering while her brother was injured and healing. In his case, a pile of metal poles toppled onto his legs, striking one and causing a very nasty fractured ankle and knee. Another client was hit by a car. Another was struck by a Range Rover — the very model she had hoped to buy and drive herself — and had to end her nursing career in the UK and return to her home country. Another client had a stillage of glass fall onto his legs and knees; one leg was saved, but the other was crushed, leaving a large, deep open wound that repeatedly became infected. Another client's ankle was twisted through 360 degrees and run over by an excavator during highway road repairs. Another slipped on a banana skin in the corridor of a hotel near Gatwick Airport, severely injuring her knee. One client fell from a ladder and broke his knee. Another fell from a scaffolding tower and broke his knee; he had been working on a day he should have spent resting to observe a religious occasion, and he regretted having worked, feeling that his accident was like a punishment.

10. A young ship's captain visited London with a group of tourists. He and his wife stayed behind to buy souvenirs for their children and friends. Rushing to catch their bus, they attempted to cross a very busy road in front of a famous London attraction, where he was struck by a motorcyclist before his wife's eyes. As a result of his brain injuries, his life support was withdrawn and he died.

11. An amputated finger sustained while working with a tractor on a farm; another client lost a finger while using a rope to pull out the trunk of an apple tree on a farm; a restaurant owner lost a finger while using a chainsaw to cut the legs off unused chairs; and another client lost a finger while working in a meat factory.

12. Loss of an eye while working on a construction site for a very well-known construction company. Another client lost his vision when a piece of concrete struck his eye during the construction of King's Cross station and the underground.

13. A client who developed asthma while working in a doughnut factory; the same client later died of lung cancer.